DEPOSIT for 100% Grass-Fed Whole Cow Share, Raised in Texas

READ CAREFULLY BEFORE BUYING. This is a DEPOSIT for a whole cow share based on hanging weight. Final Price is determined on Hanging Weight of the Carcass.

• Price per lb of hanging weight: $9.50, locked in on the day you place your deposit
• Typical whole hanging weight: 600 to 700 lbs
• Typical total: $5,700 to $6,650
• Deposit to reserve: $3,200, applied toward your total
• Processing (cut, package, freeze): included in your price
• Effective cost per lb of beef in your freezer: about $18.00 to $19.50, depending on your cuts and yield

A whole cow is the best value per pound we offer, and the last stop for anyone who's done with the grocery meat counter. You get the entire animal, cut exactly the way you want it, from cattle raised on Texas pasture and picked up in McKinney.

Our partner ranchers raise Angus and Hereford cattle (and crosses) on Texas pasture with rotational grazing. No feedlots. No confinement. Never grain-finished to fatten them up at the end. No antibiotics. No added growth hormones. No mRNA vaccines. No glyphosate. That's the beef in every whole cow share.

What you get in a whole cow

A whole cow share typically runs roughly 300 to 350 lbs of packaged beef, depending on the animal's hanging weight, the cuts you choose, and the yield. That's the entire animal: every steak, every roast, the brisket, the ribs, the ground beef, and all the odds and ends most people never get access to.

It's a lot of beef. For most families it's a year of eating, and it's why plenty of buyers split a whole with a sibling, a neighbor, or a friend from church and each take a half.

Whole cow cuts, your call

Buy a whole and you design it. A whole animal is two sides, so you get two cut sheets and can cut each side differently if you want. One side heavy on steaks, one side heavy on ground and roasts, if that's what fits how you cook.

• Steaks: boneless or bone-in ribeye, New York strip, filet, sirloin, picanha, flank, skirt, tri tip. You pick thickness.
• Roasts: chuck, arm, rump, round. Bone-in or boneless, and you choose the size per roast.
• Ribs: short ribs or dino ribs.
• Brisket: whole, split, halved, or ground. Two briskets in a whole animal, so you can do one of each.
• Braising and slow-cook: shank, osso bucco, stew meat.
• Variety meats: liver, heart, oxtail, tongue, cheek meat, if you want them.
• Ground beef: in 1 lb vacuum-sealed packs or 2 lb chubs, your choice. Anything you don't assign becomes ground.

Prefer more ground and fewer roasts? Say so. Want every steak cut thick at 1.5 inches? That's your call too. Everything is packaged one per pack, and anything you leave blank on the sheet comes back as ground beef.

Organs are inspected individually at the plant and any of them can be condemned even when the carcass passes, so we can't guarantee a specific organ on a specific animal.

One thing worth knowing before you order, especially on a whole animal: we run an over-30-month grass-finished program, so the loin gets cut as New York strip and tenderloin rather than T-bones or porterhouse. You get the same meat, cut into two steaks instead of one. If T-bones are what you're after, this isn't the program for you.

What's included, and what costs extra

Standard cut, wrap, and freeze is included in your price per pound. Two things cost extra.

Value-added products are sausage, flavored ground beef, hamburger patties, and beef bacon, with a 25 lb minimum per sausage variety and per flavored ground variety. They're priced separately, shown as their own line on your invoice, and they can't be refunded once production starts. Worth planning for: sausage, flavored ground, and patties are all made from ground beef, so every pound you order is a pound of ground you don't get back.

Extra processing covers soup bones at $1.00/lb and hamburger patties at $0.75/lb. That charge is for labor, not for the beef, which you've already paid for by the hanging pound. Bone-in cuts carry no extra charge; the soup bone charge applies only to bones packaged on their own.

How whole cow pricing works

Whole cow price is based on hanging weight (hot carcass weight, or HCW), not the final packaged weight. When the animal is processed, it's weighed at the USDA-inspected facility before cutting and trimming. Your share is priced from that weight.

• Price per lb of hanging weight: $9.50, locked in on the day you place your deposit
• Typical whole hanging weight: 550 to 750 lbs
• Typical total: $5,470 to $7,460
• Deposit to reserve: $3,200, applied toward your total
• Processing (cut, package, freeze): included in your price
• Effective cost per lb of beef in your freezer: about $18.10 to $19.90, depending on your yield

That per-pound number is the lowest of our three sizes. A whole animal is where the math works hardest in your favor. See the full breakdown, including a worked example on a real animal, on our How We Price Your Beef Share page.

How to reserve your whole cow

1. Place your deposit by the 15th. Reserve your whole cow share online with a $3,200 deposit. Order by the 15th of the month and your share goes into that month's batch, with pickup the following month. Your deposit reserves the next available whole animal for you.
2. The 15th is also the lock-in date. Cancel any time before the 15th and we refund your deposit in full to the card you paid with, no fee. After the 15th your share is scheduled for processing, so the order can't be cancelled or changed. See our Refund & Cancellation Policy.
3. Fill out your cut sheets by the 22nd. We email both sheets as soon as your deposit goes through and walk you through them. There are no wrong answers, and we'll tell you what most families do if you'd rather not think about it. Scan or photograph them and send them back to orders@texasgrassfedfarms.com by the 22nd. If we don't hear from you by then, we apply our standard cut sheet so your batch stays on schedule. Once submitted, selections are final.
4. We handle processing. Your beef goes through a USDA-inspected Texas facility. Their process uses electrical stimulation, which starts tenderizing right after harvest and prevents the cold-induced toughening that makes some grass-finished beef disappointing.
5. We confirm your balance. Once the hanging weight is confirmed at the processor, we calculate your final balance from that weight and send you a second invoice. You pay by entering your card on the invoice; we don't store your card or charge it automatically. The balance is due within 3 business days of the invoice, and no later than 48 hours before your pickup day, whichever comes first.
6. We send your pickup date. Pickup is on a scheduled Saturday afternoon in McKinney, TX, with an assigned arrival window.

Fulfillment runs about four to six weeks after the cycle closes. That covers finishing the cattle, scheduling and delivering to the processor, harvest, aging, cutting, packaging, and our pickup from the plant.

Pickup in McKinney

All shares are pickup only in McKinney, TX right now. We're not shipping.

Pickup happens on a scheduled Saturday afternoon, and we assign each customer an arrival window, generally between 12:00 PM and 6:00 PM. Your beef comes packed frozen in sealed boxes with a packing slip inside. You sign for your box count at pickup, then check the contents against the slip when you get home and tell us within 72 hours if anything's off.

Plan your vehicle. A whole cow is roughly 300 to 360 lbs of frozen beef and it takes real space, not just freezer space. Bring a truck or an SUV with the seats down, bring gloves, and bring help loading. How you get it home is up to you, so bring whatever coolers or blankets you want for the drive.

Can't make your window? Send someone in your place. No charge, just let us know in advance and have them bring photo ID. Full details are in our Shipping & Pickup Policy.

Do you have room for a whole cow?

Be honest about this before you reserve. Plan on 25 to 30 cubic feet of freezer space, which for most people means more than one freezer: a large dedicated chest freezer plus whatever you already have. Real-world packing eats about a quarter of a freezer's rated capacity once you account for package shapes and shelving, so size up rather than down.

This is the thing that catches people out. There's no fixing it on pickup day, and 340 lbs of beef with nowhere to put it is a bad Saturday. Measure before you order.

If that's more than you can store, the half cow share gives you the same beef and the same cut sheet control at half the volume. You can also split a whole with someone and each take a side.

See the cut sheet before you order

Curious what you'll actually be filling out? Here's the real thing, both sides, exactly as we'll email it to you once your deposit goes through.

Download the whole cow cut sheet (PDF)

Worth a look before you place your deposit, especially if you've never built one before. Four pages, two sides, and you only fill out the B Side if you want it cut differently from the A Side. Nothing to submit now; this is just so you know what you're getting into. When it's your turn, it's due back by the 22nd.

Whole cow, answered

How much does a whole cow cost?

Whole cow cost is based on hanging weight, not packaged weight. You pay $9.50 per pound of hanging weight, with processing to cut, package, and freeze included. A whole animal typically hangs 600 to 700 lbs, so your total usually lands between $5,700 and $6,650, which works out to about $18.10 to $19.90 per pound of actual beef in your freezer. You reserve with a $3,200 deposit and pay the balance once the exact hanging weight is confirmed.

How many pounds of beef is a whole cow?

Expect roughly 300 to 350 lbs of packaged beef, depending on the hanging weight and your cut choices. Ask for more boneless cuts and the number comes down a little; keep bone-in cuts and soup bones and it comes up. Your take-home weight is always lower than the hanging weight because of aging, trimming, and boning, which is normal for every beef share.

Is it cheaper to buy a whole cow?

Per pound, yes. A whole cow is the best per-pound value of our three sizes, and it costs less per pound than buying the same grass-finished cuts one at a time. The tradeoffs are freezer space and paying more up front, which is exactly why we offer halves and quarters too.

How many cut sheets do I get?

Two, one per side. You can cut the two sides differently if you want. Both are due back by the 22nd, seven days after the order cutoff.

Can I add sausage or beef bacon?

Yes, on the cut sheet. There's a 25 lb minimum per sausage variety and per flavored ground beef variety. These are priced separately and billed as their own line on your invoice, and they can't be refunded once production starts. Keep in mind that sausage, flavored ground, and patties all come out of your ground beef.

How much freezer space does a whole cow need?

Plan on 25 to 30 cubic feet, which usually means more than one freezer. Real-world packing eats about a quarter of a freezer's rated capacity, so give yourself more room than the math suggests.

Can I split a whole cow with someone?

Yes, and plenty of people do. You can each take a side and split the cost. Shares are for personal and household use, so splitting with family, friends, or neighbors is fine; reselling commercially isn't.

How long does the beef last in the freezer?

Properly vacuum-sealed and kept frozen at 0°F, a year or more without meaningful quality loss. Your beef comes to you frozen and ready to store.

By placing a deposit you agree to our Terms of Service, Refund & Cancellation Policy, and Shipping & Pickup Policy. Questions about your order: orders@texasgrassfedfarms.com or 469-809-8098.